There’s a heap of excitement swirling around the LA Rams team and their wonderful fans. And can anyone be surprised? Now sitting atop the entire NFC conference, winning six in a row, boasting the front-runner for this year’s MVP, and playing an unstoppable level of football offensively and defensively, the Rams are not only legit Super Bowl contenders, they’re flat-out the best team in the NFL currently. Stafford has continued establishing his firm case for MVP alongside his all-star cast of offensive weapons. And on the other side of the ball, players like Emmanuel Forbes Jr, Jared Verse, and Byron Young, among others, have turned the defense into a clear-cut elite unit.
After a landslide 34-7 victory against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, granted a few unlucky injuries sustained on their side, the Rams must now focus on an intriguing 6-6 Carolina Panthers team in week 13, who are currently second in the NFC South. Intriguing because, for a team that was considered bottom of the barrel last year, they’ve been teetering between greatness and lackluster throughout the current season.
There are plenty of promising positives surrounding this young and hungry Panthers team. Their new RB1, Rico Dowdle, has seemingly revived his career after a failed stint with the Dallas Cowboys. Many teams wrote off the six-year veteran as another journeyman running back, but upon signing with Carolina, Dowdle has since turned into one of the best running backs in the league.
When former starting running back Chuba Hubbard went down with a calf injury earlier in the season, Dowdle stepped up in historic fashion. He became the first running back since Dalvin Cook in 2020 to post two back-to-back games of 200 yards, one in week 5 against the Miami Dolphins with 206 rushing yards and 28 receiving yards, and the other in week 6 against his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, with 183 rushing yards and 56 receiving yards. He seemingly overtook the starting job at the RB position, much to everyone’s surprise, including the Panthers’ coaching staff.
Another bright spot is their rookie wide receiver, Tetairoa McMillan, who has easily become their best receiving threat, and a standout among the entire rookie class this year. He is well on his way to earning more than 1,000 receiving yards, along with roughly 80 receptions. McMillan clearly has Pro Bowl level talent and should help elevate this team in the coming years.
Long gone are the days of Carolina’s defensive unit being the punchline of every joke. They are currently 16th in passing yards and 19th in rushing yards—while it certainly isn’t the best, it’s definitely a huge upgrade from what we’ve seen in recent years. And this is largely due to arguably their best player, cornerback Jaycee Horn. Horn was the former 8th overall pick in the 2021 draft, and has proved to be one of the more notable players at the position since then, and is now seen as a top 10 cornerback in the NFL.
The shaky area of the team still surrounds quarterback Bryce Young. Sure, he’s made massive strides of improvement from last year as a player and an overall leader. He’s had stellar games, like his otherworldly 448 passing yards and 3 touchdown performance in week 11 against the Atlanta Falcons, but he’s also shown flashes of his old self, like his previous match against the San Francisco 49ers where he had 169 passing yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions. Bryce has given us glimpses of excellence, but lacks the consistency to take him over the hump to be considered an actual threat.
The injuries for Carolina are unfortunately plentiful, with CB Damarri Mathis (knee), G Robert Hunt (bicep), WR David Moore (elbow), LB Patrick Jones II (back), G Brady Christensen (achilles), and CB Corey Thornton (fibula) on the IR list. LB Claudin Cherelus (concussion), G Chandler Zavala (calf), C Cade Mays, LB Christian Rozeboom, LB Trevin Wallace, and CB Jaycee Horn (concussion) are listed as questionable.
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For the Rams, TE Tyler Higbee (ankle), S Quentin Lake (elbow), and OT Rob Havenstein (ankle) are on injury reserve. WR Tutu Atwell, who was on IR for the past few weeks, as been elevated to questionable, so hopefully he’ll fully return to action come Sunday. The other players listed as questionable are OT David Quessenberry and WR Xavier Smith.
Sunday’s game should be a fun one after the Thanksgiving festivities have cooled down. If your leftovers make it from Thursday until then, nothing pairs with Rams football better than a delicious sandwich packed with all the Thanksgiving fixings. Catch Stafford and company attempt to continue their gridiron excellence at 10:00 AM PST, Sunday morning.
